Having moved from St. Augustine’s parish in Oakland to return to my home state
of Missouri, I found myself missing many aspects of the parish but
especially the community I felt with my small faith sharing group.
Several other members of the group had also moved on to their next
professional or personal destination and so a few of us starting doing a
Google Plus video ‘Hang Out’ once a week during Lent. We followed the
same materials as the small groups gathering in Oakland but instead we
were a virtual bunch, spanning four time zones to come together and
share.
We
didn’t know how it would work. Could faith translate across the
Internet? Would it be awkward to share personal stories when you were
sitting alone in your home? Would technical difficulties make the
exchange feel robotic rather than intimate?
It was clear after our first session that those concerns were all
unnecessary. God’s presence was as real had the group been gathered
together physically. And perhaps that is because God typically reveals
himself in actions. “Verbs not nouns,” as we heard Father Mark speak
about last week – I had the good pleasure of being physically in Oakland
for this homily but could have also experienced it over the webcast –
Jesus comes to us in the breaking of the bread. In that action. In that
verb. Faith is an active experience, it is not passive. Love requires
action. God calls us to love others, to accept others, to appreciate
others. Verb, verb, verb.
And so with the faith sharing group, God calls us to share. He does
not stipulate the method or the delivery vehicle, just simply that we
should commune with one another.
